Marathon #24 - Pennsylvania

The Race:  Steamtown Marathon, Scranton, PA, October 12, 2014

My training plan:  Steamtown was the second marathon of a back-to-back marathon weekend, so my training plan was the same as the Hartford Marathon.

Weather:  The weather was perfect.  It was much colder than expected at the start, but warmed up nicely throughout the run.  When we were packing on Thursday for the trip, it said the lows would be in the 40s.  The lows ended up being mid-30s at the start, but warmed up to about 59 by the end of the race.

Running attire:  I wore my newly purchased arm warmers/sleeves with my short sleeved Liz shirt with the Hebrews 12:1 verse on the back, black running tights, Balega socks and Asics shoes.  I also used my iFitness belt to carry my phone and GUs, my Delaware marathon running hat, and a pair of purple gloves.

Who I ran with:  I didn't start off running with anyone, but did pick up a few people along the way.  I ran with a girl named Meredith for about 8 miles or so.  Toward the end around mile 19, I passed Mike and Kelsey, and they followed close behind me (encouraging each other) almost to the finish line.  They passed me at the last water stop and sped up so much that I couldn't catch them in the end.

The Course:  The course is a point-to-point course.  It is a net downhill race, and goes downhill about 90% of the course.  There are a few uphills scattered throughout, and especially at the end.  The course has a few "packed gravel" trails in the middle.  I say that with quotation marks because some of the trails had some big gravel rocks, and some of it had some unpacked sand (felt like running on the beach).

The views along the course were breathtaking.  The fall colors were spectacular.  Coming down off the mountain toward miles 3-4, we were on a little country road, and you could see ahead of you for miles over the other mountains with all the trees showing their colors.  On the trail portion, we ran next to a river, which was also beautiful, but I couldn't find a good place to take pictures.

The end of the race, as I mentioned, was uphill and a little bit of a teaser.  As you were coming toward the hill, you could see a banner across the road, which looked like the finish line.   But, alas, it was not, and we trudged on.  Again, another banner across the road could be seen, but again it wasn't the finish line.  People were yelling, "just three more blocks."  And finally, at the top of the hill, the finish line banner could be seen.  Relief!

Organization:  The organization was fabulous!  This might be one of the best organized races I have ever been to.  The Assistant Race Director sent race update emails as the race approached, and daily the weeks before the race.  The emails were both fun and informative.  Anyone who actually read them would know almost anything they could want to know about the race.

Unfortunately, I was unable to go to the race expo, as it closed at 6pm and we were still driving from Hartford, so I don't know if it was good, bad, or otherwise.  But they did offer race-day packet pickup at the high school where the starting line was and offered some race attire for sale at the finish line.

The aid stations were fully stocked and had plenty of enthusiastic volunteers.  There was both Gatorade and water at each official water stop.  They also had several medical stations set up with Vaseline, Tylenol, and Advil.  They had porta potties at most of the aid stations, and clearly pointed them out in the race information packet.  They did not offer any GU along the course, but that didn't matter at all, and you will see why when I talk about the fans below.

One recommendation I would pose for the future is to have a printed map of the course in the race information packet.  The interactive map online was hard to use and even harder to transport with you as spectators try to go watch the runners.

Swag:  I typically find that smaller to mid-sized races have good swag.  That wasn't the case for this race.  This is probably the most lacking category I review.  The only swag we got was the long-sleeved dri-fit shirt, medal, and some little green "wind glasses" (as Rob calls them).

Starting line:  The starting line was at the Forest City Regional High School.  The whole school seemed to get involved.  The cheerleaders were there to greet the runners as they got off the bus.  The marching band was there to play songs during the first mile of the race.  There were students handing out ribbons and water bottles.  There were plenty of porta potties lined up outside the school (labeled Men and Women).  The school was open so the runners could stay warm until the starting cannon (yes, I said cannon) went off.  The race was started by one of those old cannons from the Civil War, with men dressed in Civil War attire shooting it off.

Because the starting line and finish line were in different places, they offered bus service from the finish to the start.  I didn't use the service, because my husband was there to drop me off at the start, but I saw the buses of runners coming to the school.

Fans:  The fans were much better than I ever could have expected.  When I looked at the  map online, it looked like there would be several lonely spots along the course with no spectators.  Now, don't get me wrong - it wasn't lined from start to finish with fans, but with the frequency and quality of the fans, you completely forgot about the lonely stretches.  Every town that we ran through had crowds of people cheering us on and handing out goodies.  There were probably more unofficial water stations than official stations.  Along the course I ate a granola bar (the only thing provided at an official station), orange slices (both real and candy), gummy worms, and two bananas (cut in half).  They also had people handing out ice pops, water, and beer at various places along the course.

The fans really showed pride in their town.  They had signs saying "Such-and-Such Town Welcomes Runners." The schools got into it with bands playing and cross country teams manning water stops.

Finish line:  When you crossed the finish line the happy volunteers were there to congratulate you and give you your milar blanket, metal, and a bottle of water.  You were then directed toward the food tent.

The finish line had the best post race food I've seen yet.  They had the usual bananas and bagels, but they also had chicken soup, and every kind of pasta dish you could want (Mac n cheese, penne with marinara, shells and Alfredo).  They also had pizza and Krispy Kreme donuts, granola bars, coffee and juice, cookies, yogurt, and probably other things I'm forgetting.  The one improvement I would mention is that, other than the bottle of water, there were no other rehydrating liquids to take with you.

The finish area was right downtown Scranton in a green area.  They had post race massages (although by the time we went there after we showered and ate, they were closing down).  They also offered showers for the runners a few blocks away.  The parking around the finish was easy to find and free.

Results:  3:44:56.  Pretty good for a second marathon that weekend.  It's actually my second best time ever.

How I felt:  At the start, my calves were tight in the cold, and I was worried that I might have a bad race.  I took the first mile as slowly as I could, with the crowd and steep downhill slope, and ended up running an 8:48 first mile - much faster than I had intended for a warm-up mile.  The second mile, I decided to take advantage of an open porta potty, and still ran a 10 minute mile.  The next two miles I stopped and took pictures so that I could slow my pace down (those miles were under 8:30, even with the picture stops).  By then I was pretty warmed up, and decided to just go with the slopes.  I felt better the second half than I did during the first half and decided to go all out and try to negative split the race.  I felt pretty good the entire race until about the 26th mile when I could dig any deeper to catch up with the two people I had been running with, but I still finished strong.

Travel/tourism:  We were in the Scranton area less than 24 hours, so it's hard to rate this area.  We drove in from Hartford, arriving around 6:30pm on Saturday.  We stayed at Nichols Village Hotel and Spa, in Clark's Summit.  The hotel was nice, but wasn't anything special.  Since we arrived after dark and left in the morning before the sun rose, I didn't get a very good look at the hotel and amenities.

When we arrived, it was dinner time.  We asked the hotel where we could find a sports bar so Rob could watch the games.  The hotel clerk suggested JJ Bridges, which is just a few doors down from the hotel.  The bar was packed as the Penn State game had just started.  We managed to get a table and invited another couple to join us, since they weren't going to get a table otherwise, and ours was big enough for four people.  Rob had two of the local beers, and I had the parmigiana chicken with a baked potato.  The bar had a local group playing live music that started a little while after we sat down.  The food was good, the band was better, and the company was even better.  The people of Scranton seem like great people.

For lunch after the race, someone suggested Pizza by Pappas.  They said anytime they go to downtown Scranton they have to stop there.  It was a nice little pizza joint with 10 inch personal pizzas.  We each had our own, and they were quite delicious.  The outside of the crust was a little crisper than I'm used to, but still good.

After the pizza, we headed back to Hartford.  One more state down, and now I finally have an answer to the question I always get asked: "What was your favorite marathon so far?"  Definitely Steamtown!

Marathon #23 - Connecticut

The Race:  Hartford Marathon, Hartford, CT, October 11, 2014

My training plan:  Because I knew I was going to be running back-to-back days, I started in mid-August running back-to-back long runs on weekends.  I did two 20 milers followed by 15 milers and a 20 miler followed by a 13 miler before race weekend.  I also started running consecutive weekdays:  Tuesday through Thursday.  The mid-week runs ranged from 6-8 miles in length each day.  I took Mondays completely off and cross trained on Fridays.

Weather:  The weather was cold and rainy.  It started in the upper 40s with a drizzly rain. It probably got into the lower 50s at some point, but it felt like it was getting colder as the race went on.  There was also a light wind to factor in.  At the end, it was so cold that I didn't even stretch before we headed to the car.

Running attire:  I bought a pair of arm warmers/sleeves at the expo, so I wore those with my short sleeved Liz Digeez shirt, white running tights, purple and white shorts, Balega socks and Asics shoes.  I also used my iFitness belt to carry my phone and GUs, my Delaware marathon running hat, and a pair of pink gloves.

Who I ran with:  I ran with the 4:45 pace group, headed by a guy named Kim and a girl named Jeanne.  There were also several other people who stayed with us for some or all of the way:  Susan, Megan, Michelle, Cathy, and some others who I didn't catch their names.  From about mile 15 to 19, Rob jumped in and ran with me for about five miles.

The Course:  The course was a rolling hills,

out-and-back course, for the most part.  The beginning takes you around downtown several ways, and then goes out on a long, out-and-back leg from mile 10 to mile 17 and back into town to the end.  There were plenty of places for spectators to stop and cheer for their runners.  It also went by some very pretty views (or they would have been pretty if the rain and clouds weren't around), and ended through the arch.  Very picturesque.

There was one part where we ran along what appeared to be a park bike path.  It was probably a little too early in the course (mile 6 or so), because it was pretty crowded with no room to pass other runners.  But the parks were pretty.  There were several places where we ran along a river.

While there was some fall foliage out, there was also a lot of green left.  I'm not sure if this is typical, or if it was just because of strange weather this year.  For better colors, I would suggest moving the race back a weekend.

Organization:  The organization was good, but there are several suggestions I would make to improve.

The pre race expo was a great size for a mid-sized race (about 19,000 runners total between the marathon, half, and 5k).  They had a lot of local booths with massage, chiropractic services, GI services and other runner-related services.  They also had some national runner gear booths like RunSEEN, Sketchers, Janji, Fleet Feet, The Stick, etc.  They didn't have a lot of free giveaways, though.  Some of the booths had open samples, but no free samples you could take with you.

I got to meet Kathrine Switzer (the first woman to have an official number in the Boston marathon).  This was back when Boston didn't allow women to compete, but she registered as K Switzer.  They didn't know she was a woman, so they accepted her application.  When the race director saw a woman with a number running, he tried to pull her off the course, but her boyfriend knocked him down, and they kept running.  She has started a movement for women called 261 Fearless (261 was her race number in Boston) and had a booth at the expo.

I loved that the Hartford Marathon offered pace teams, and that they had two pacers for each group (just in case one had to stop at the bathroom or something).  They had a wide variety of pace options (4:40, 4:45, 5:00, 5:10 all around the pace I was looking for, and obviously more ahead and behind me).  

There were bands and DJs along the course to motivate you along the way.  They weren't Rock n Roll marathon quality, but they were frequent and effective, even in the cold, rainy weather.

They utilized cutting edge technology.  They had an app that gave you information about the race, parking, maps, expo, etc.  They also had athlete tracking where you can sign up to have your splits posted on Facebook (or another social media site) and texted to up to three phones.  They had real-time results at the finish line where you could look up your time as soon as you got to the post race expo.  They also sent some race update emails, but they were mostly about the sponsors of the race and didn't have much relevant race information.

The hardcopy race information guide had a lot of cool articles to read about some of the runners and how the race was organized.  It did not have enough information on parking.  In fact, I don't think it even mentioned parking at all.  We had to go to the app to find a map of where you can park, which is hard to look at on a phone.  It also didn't talk about where GU/candy/food was located on the course, which is critical to plan race strategy.  The maps of the course weren't drawn to scale, so it was hard to gauge how far some of the roads were before you made a turn.

The water stops could have used more volunteers.  There were several where only one or two people had cups in their hands, or they were frantically filling cups in order to have some to hand out.  The volunteers that were there were very nice and supportive; they just needed more help.

The course had a 6-hour limit, and they were ultra strict about it.  While I made it in well below the time, other people in the 50 States Marathon Club were commenting about getting pushed onto the sidewalk when they had only been running 5 hours and 45 minutes.  When they say 6 hours, apparently Hartford means 6 hours from when the gun goes off, not from when you cross the start line (which most other races mean).

Swag:  The swag was minimal at this race.  Of course we got the shirt and medal, and the shirt was a long-sleeved dri-fit shirt.  They also had a small reusable tote that they put the race information guide and some coupons.  I heard they were also giving away cowbells, but we must have gotten there too late.  In their attempt to be "green," they also gave away water bottles at the finish line filled with hose water.

One of the semi-good things about this race (and necessary since there is NO race day packet pickup), is for a small fee (I think it was $15) they will mail your bib and shirt to you.  Since I was coming from out of town, and I never know if my flight will have issues, I opted for a mailed packet.  It arrived in plenty of time before we had to fly up there, and I got to leave the shirt at home instead of cramming it into my suitcase after the race.

Starting line:  There was plenty of close, free parking at the starting line.  Once we found them (they desperately need to put up more signage), there were plenty of porta potties, in three different places, too.  I think they had a starting line map and a finish line map in the race information packet, but we didn't have it with us when we were looking for the porta potties, and they weren't in an obvious location.  They could have used more signage for gear check and pacers too.  I heard a guy ask a police officer about gear check, and the officer had no idea where to send him.

They did not have any corrals, which I don't necessarily think are needed.  I think they had a self seeded area, but I don't remember seeing the signs.  The large pacer signs were helpful but they didn't necessarily line up in order either.  By the time the pace groups left their meeting area to head to the start, the starting line was crowded, and it was hard for them to get in line with others already there with that pace in mind.

Despite the rain, they had a huge TV or projection screen where they were projecting the crowds and other information to the runners.  That is the first time I have seen something like that at any race (again, cutting edge technology).

Fans:  My personal favorite fan was my sweet husband, Rob.  He came to cheer me on, and I saw him five times along the course.  There were several spots along the course that were easy for fans to get to, so there were a lot of fans scattered along the course.  There were definitely places with no fans, but there were enough fans to get you through.  This is especially surprising due to the weather.  But the towns and neighborhoods got into it, and even tailgated in some places to watch the race.

Finish line:  At the finish line they had a post race expo.  They had a lot of the vendors from the pre-race expo also attend the post race expo, which was nice, although it was too cold to stop to look at them.  The food tent had a lot of good items, and you had to have a ticket to get in, which limited the number of non-runners who could take the runners' food.  They started out by handing you a plate so you could put your stuff on it.  They had granola bars, bagels, bananas and orange slices, apple cobbler, some kind of protein shake, and grilled cheese sandwiches.  I hear they had soup, but by the time the 4:45ers got there, it was gone (plan for more next year so all runner get some!)

Results:  Since I ran with the 4:45 pace group, my finish time was 4:43:23

How I felt:  During the race, running slow is tough.  It wears you out because you're running so much longer than you're used to.  I was getting pretty tired around the 25 mile mark, but I pressed on with the group to finish in the paced time.  We ran pretty even 10:45 minute miles throughout. Running slow is tougher on your body while you're running the race, but easier/quicker to recover from.

Travel/tourism:  We flew into Bradley International Airport in Hartford.  The airport is small (about 22 gates), but services most of the major cities.  It is about 30 minutes away from downtown.

We rented a small SUV from the Budget at the airport (the SUV was actually cheaper than an economy car).  They have several car rental places to choose from (Avis, National, Dollar, Hertz, Budget) that are all a shuttle ride away from the airport.

I traded my timeshare points so we could have a hotel for this race and cut down on some of the expense.  We stayed at the Extended Stay America in Farmington.  There wasn't anything special or amazing about this hotel, but it gave us what we needed.  It is one of those hotels that caters to long-term guests and only services the room once per week, so we had to ask for additional towels and washcloths if we wanted fresh ones.  It had a full kitchen, which was helpful to store my ice packs in the freezer.  The fitness room was pretty small (one of each cardio machine).  They had coin laundry facilities for those who needed it.  They did allow pets, although we didn't bring Nacho with us.  It is located right off the interstate, about 20 minutes from the starting line and downtown.

Anytime I visit the New England area, I have to stop at Friendly's, because we don't have them in the south.  Friendly's is sort of like Steak n Shake, a very casual dining restaurant.  They have delicious ice cream.  We ate there twice, both near the airport (when we first arrived and before we dropped the rental car off to leave).

IHOP is my traditional pre-race dinner place, and CT was no different.  We found an IHOP in Newington, CT.  I'm pretty sure everyone knows how IHOP is, and this one was about the same as all the rest.

After the marathon, we showered and hit the road to Scranton.  On the way out, we stopped at Subway and Tiramisu Italian restaurant in Waterbury, CT.  I had penne with meatballs.  The meatballs were good, but the marinara sauce wasn't my favorite.

We returned to Hartford from Scranton late on  Sunday night.  It was dinner time, so we went to a local restaurant and bar called J Timothy's Tavern in Plainville, CT for a celebration dinner.  I had some delicious New England clam chowder and chicken and waffles for dinner.  Rob had some wings with sweet red chili sauce.  The chicken and waffles were good, but weren't anything to write home about.  Rob said the wings were good, but the sauce really burned his mouth (I guess that's what it's designed to do).  We also had a Rasberry bliss martini (me) and a local beer called Olde Burnside Ten Penny Scottish Ale (Rob).

Downtown Hartford was a typical mid-sized New England city with some older buildings mixed with newer buildings.  There seemed to be enough to do to keep you busy (provided it wasn't a holiday like Columbus Day).  They had the Science Center, art museum, cultural center, capital building, parks, etc.  We stopped at the Bushnell Park and drove around town on Monday before departing for the airport.  Overall great visit to Connecticut, and one more state checked off the list.